lauradi7dw | Reading

Just finished: Alien Clay by Adrian Tchaikovsky. Yeah, I think this is my Hugo best novel pick. It was really good, really timely, fucking gross, and gave me nightmares. It's very much a confluence all of Tchaikovsky's quirks—rather darkly funny narrator, alien minds, and the particular type of resolution he goes for. All of those things happen to work for me quite a bit. This one reminded me quite a bit of Jeff Vandermeer but less nihilistic and I liked the characters more.

Currently reading: The Tainted Cup by Robert Jackson Bennett. This was the only novel on the Hugo list where I'd never heard of the author or the book. I'm loving it so far though. It's a murder mystery set in a city where only engineered seawalls stop the things from Attack on Titan from demolishing the place every wet season. A noble is murdered in a mansion (not his mansion) via a tree growing through his body. The person charged with investigating the murder is an old autistic woman who doesn't leave her house so she gets a young man to be her eyes and ears. The murder mystery structure makes it rather different from not just this batch of nominees but the other award lists in general, which is also intriguing.

the_mary_sue_feed

Posted by Adrienne Hunter

https://www.themarysue.com/server-baby-picture-trick/

https://www.themarysue.com/?p=888943

Woman explains how she gets more tips(l) Tip Jar(r)

As frustration around tipping culture increases, a server sparks discussion—and ideation—on the lengths people will go to earn a better wage.

On June 29, TikTok user Aislin Parker (@aislinmarie) posted a video sharing her unconventional method to garner higher tips. Her video, which has amassed over 2 million views as of Wednesday, has text overlay that reads, “I put my baby picture in my book to look like a single mom who has to provide.”

https://www.themarysue.com/server-baby-picture-trick/

https://www.themarysue.com/?p=888943

languagelog_feed

Posted by Victor Mair

https://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=69724&utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=two-nations-divisible

https://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=69724

[This is a guest post by Barbara Phillips Long]

There is an interesting sidelight in commentary about an article in the New York Review of Books, which posits that the U.S. is two nations under one government, where the two entities exchange political power. The link to the NYRB (paywalled) article is here.

The Language Log topic comes from the commentary at the Lawyers, Guns and Money blog, which wonders aloud about how the Greek word/concept "polis" gets translated in various languages:

The concept of two nations doesn’t really track with the concept of political power remaining in “the people’s hands,” since the basically mystical concept of “the” people is usually thought, as a matter of political legitimation at least, to be more or less synonymous with the idea of “the” — as in one — nation.

This I think is somewhat obscured by the usages of the English language in regard to the underlying concept. Here’s the official government translation of the Constitution’s preamble into Spanish:

Nosotros, el pueblo de los Estados Unidos, con el fin de formar una Unión más perfecta, establecer la justicia, garantizar la tranquilidad nacional, atender a la defensa común, fomentar el bienestar general y asegurar los beneficios de la libertad para nosotros mismos y para nuestraposteridad, por la presente promulgamos y establecemos esta Constitución para los Estados Unidos de América.

“El pueblo” — literally “the town” — conjures up a more concrete and less metaphysically vague concept than “We the People.” Someone more learned in such matters can no doubt explain how the Greek word “polis” ended up being translated so much more literally in some languages than others, but I think this historical accident, if that’s what it is, could have considerable psychological/practical significance.

(source)

I thought Paul Campos made a good point about how "We, the people" does not convey the same rhetorical flourish in every language. Language Log readers are likely all aware of the pitfalls — and illuminations — of translation, but I confess I am curious about how many and different ways the Preamble and the concept of "polis" are expressed.

Selected readings

"One nation [head], under God [adjunct]" (6/14/04)
"'(Next) Under God,' Phrasal Idiom" (6/20/04)

https://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=69724&utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=two-nations-divisible

https://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=69724

sholio

Technically this was yesterday, but I climbed a hill and had an eagle fly past me. (The hill is the Bodenburg Butte in Palmer, AK.)

Photo from a high vantage point, looking down on farms and fields stretching to blue mountains with their tops covered in clouds. Small figure of an eagle is visible against the clouds.

I realize the eagle is more like a dot, but if you've tried to take a quick photo of a bird, this is without zoom (I was just trying to snap a fast shot without completely losing the experience of having an eagle flying in front of me) so it is actually very close! After it flew past, I turned around and two teenage guys were standing above me, having just descended from the top and watched it too. "Sick," one of them said in obvious delight, and we nodded at each other.

I'm down in Southcentral doing Mom Things. Mom has been moved out of the rental where she was living since last August, and she was supposed to go home via helicopter today, but the weather was a problem. But that's why I reserved two extra days at the Airbnb beforehand, just in case. Tomorrow we try again! She was very respectful of my space today - I think she recognized that I was planning on having the evening to myself tonight and it didn't happen - and I wrote both fanfic and original fiction, and took a long walk to sort some plot things out in my head. Thursday I go home, and perhaps drive the Denali Highway on my way, if the wildfire smoke isn't too bad.

minoanmiss

( You're about to view content that the journal owner has advised should be viewed with discretion. )

Current Mood: okay

the_mary_sue_feed

Posted by Claire Goforth

https://www.themarysue.com/hinge-match-sends-apartment-coordinates/

https://www.themarysue.com/?p=888881

Woman looking shocked(l) Person holding phone with hinge app on display(r)

In the world of online dating, it can be difficult to convert a possible match into an actual date. Just ask the man who swiped right 2 million times on Tinder just to get one measly date.

A woman says that a Hinge suitor got her attention in an extremely uncomfortable way. Her tale has thousands worried for her safety.

https://www.themarysue.com/hinge-match-sends-apartment-coordinates/

https://www.themarysue.com/?p=888881

the_mary_sue_feed

Posted by Sarah Fimm

https://www.themarysue.com/10-fantasy-books-with-beautiful-prose-that-reads-like-poetry/

https://www.themarysue.com/?p=888919

Cover art for three fantasy books with poetic prose

“Verily and forsooth, the yellowy sun drippeth down upon the meadhall like a cockatrice egg fresh cracked, as maid Marian McMcgillicutty Penrose-Smyth runs a fine mahogany comb through her wild chestnut tresses. With each tangle smoothed, her beauty beams radiant the the gilded sword of King Tiberius XII, as it was in the age of…” No. Just no. No one wants to read fantasy written like that. While many fantasy authors try to punch up their words into poetry, their prose often ends up purple as a fresh-punched bruise. But the authors on this list? Each one is a true wordsmith, able to hang with the best of the olden day bards. Here are 10 fantasy books with truly beautiful prose that reads like an epic poem.

The Song of Achilles

Madeline Miller spent over a decade writing The Song of Achilles – a fantasy romance retelling of Homer’s epic poem The Iliad – and it shows. Just as the title promises, the prose of this novel sings on the page. The poetry revolves around the tender love affair between the demigod Achilles and the mortal Patroclus, following their journey from childhood companions, to teenage lovers, to ride or die adult partners who meet a tragic end in the Trojan War. Yes, this novel is a downer, but a beautiful one – like watching a shot swan plummet out of the sky. You’ll ugly cry through the last fifty pages, and crack up again when you realize this novel’s words have – like the grapes that make the bittersweet wine of Dionysius – been pressed onto the inside of your heart. Yeah, that was a purple prose metaphor. Sue me.

https://www.themarysue.com/10-fantasy-books-with-beautiful-prose-that-reads-like-poetry/

https://www.themarysue.com/?p=888919

the_mary_sue_feed

Posted by Rachel Joy Thomas

https://www.themarysue.com/doordash-beautiful-girls-warning/

https://www.themarysue.com/?p=888898

Woman gives warning when ordering from Doordash app(l) Doordash app open on iphone(r)

A woman on TikTok has a PSA for “beautiful girls” ordering DoorDash: “If you are a beautiful girl… get tints and don’t use your real name on DoorDash.”

In a video with over 37,000 views, TikTok user Shamari (@shamarixx) explained how she accidentally ended up in a scary situation with a DoorDash driver.

https://www.themarysue.com/doordash-beautiful-girls-warning/

https://www.themarysue.com/?p=888898

sovay

Rabbit, rabbit! I had to go for my annual physical this afternoon, but I stopped by Porter Square Books afterward to collect a book for my mother and look what was part of their summer sea-display:

I had wanted to write about so many queer films for June, but the month disappeared. Fortunately before we ran out of the formal observance of Pride,

rushthatspeaks and I made it to Rainer Werner Fassbinder's Querelle (1982) at the Coolidge. It was adapted from the 1947 novel by Jean Genet, but I have never seen anything onscreen that more resembled the novels of Chip Delany. Meant in sincere compliment, it is one of the sweatiest films I have ever seen. It looks like it smells like a porno theater. Its antihero is straight out of Tom of Finland with his sailor's tight, tight white trousers and muscular cleavage revealed by the barest excuse for an A-shirt, his boyish, chiseled, louche face under his insolently cocked bachi in the sullen, enticing haze that never varies from the sodium-smoke of just after sunset or just before dawn, a perpetual cruising hour. The sea-wall of its fantasized Brest is studded with stone phalli, anatomically complete with slit and balls. All graffiti in town is dicks. The chanteuse of the dive bar sings Wilde like Dietrich, but some of the construction workers with their buff hard hats are playing video games while the naval lieutenant who pines for Querelle records his poetically criminal obsessions into a portable tape recorder. The bare-chested, leather-vested cop at the bar actually is a cop outside of it, where he looks just as fetishistic in his fedora and black leather trenchcoat. Every interaction between men looks like a negotiation or a seduction whether it is one or not, although on some level it always is, regardless of the no-homo excuses manufactured to allow their bodies to meet. Constantly, metaphysically, literally, this movie fucks. Its hothouse, bathhouse sexuality must have come in just under the cutting wire of AIDS. I have no idea what it would offer a viewer with no sexual or aesthetic interest in men except its philosophy, although as my husband notes the philosophy is actually quite good, deconstructing its hard masc signifiers as much as it gets off on them, dissolving in and out of the words and ultimately the life of Genet; the theatricality of its interlocked sets and swelteringly flamboyant lighting would look entirely natural on the stage. It quotes Plutarch and stages a hand job that without a glimpse of cock would have caused mass apoplexies in the Breen office. (Send it back in time, please.) It was my introduction to Fassbinder and if I had seen it as an adolescent, I imagine it would have had much the same effect as Tanith Lee. It was introduced by the series programmer wearing leather in its honor and a T-shirt for Kenneth Anger's Scorpio Rising (1963). It made a superb date movie.

Current Music: Les Cowboys Fringants, "Marine marchande"

the_mary_sue_feed

Posted by Rachel Leishman

https://www.themarysue.com/the-dialogue-from-the-bear-isnt-bad-its-real/

https://www.themarysue.com/?p=888893

The Bear season 4 premiered on Hulu from FX and we’re back in the thick of it with our favorite restaurant kitchen. But that also means we’re wading through a sea of criticisms that are both valid and a little less agreeable.

One that has popped up during season 4 of the series is that the dialogue is “bad.” The argument is that some audience members cannot follow what is being said when characters are going back and forth. The scene in question is one between Claire (Molly Gordon) and Carmy (Jeremy Allen White) where the two are talking over each other in a fight scene.

https://www.themarysue.com/the-dialogue-from-the-bear-isnt-bad-its-real/

https://www.themarysue.com/?p=888893

choco_frosh

Today is--somehow--my tenth anniversary* as a changeringer.

* Well, with a couple of caveats. This excludes, obviously, trying to learn change ringing back when I was 14. And I'm using July 1 as a convenient approximation, in much the same way as

sorcyress uses their birthday. I know had already been to a practice or two at Advent before I went to Old North the first time, which I think was on July 4; so the first time with a rope in my hands may have been July 1, or it may have been a Wednesday or two before then. The earliest reference I can find to ringing is a blog post from July 16 [Locked]--but I'd clearly been ringing for some time at that point.
...I should probably check the ~~Log~~ Guest book at CotA, huh.

the_mary_sue_feed

Posted by Sabine Joseph

https://www.themarysue.com/uber-passenger-escapes-car/

https://www.themarysue.com/?p=888887

Woman with curly hear wearing blue jacket(r) Uber icon(r)

A woman said she was “blessed to make it out alive” after an unsettling experience with her Uber driver.

In a minute-long TikTok that received over 210,500 views, Xkhat (@xkhatkhu) records her Uber driver engaging in strange behavior. In the front seat, he is twirling a pocket knife between his hands.

https://www.themarysue.com/uber-passenger-escapes-car/

https://www.themarysue.com/?p=888887

the_mary_sue_feed

Posted by Rachel Leishman

https://www.themarysue.com/glen-powell-teamed-up-with-that-saratoga-man-to-promote-the-running-man/

https://www.themarysue.com/?p=888904

glen powell and ashton hall training together

Remember when we were all obsessed with that man who woke up every day and did a morning wake up by dunking his face in Saratoga water? Now he’s teamed up with Glen Powell to promote the trailer for The Running Man.

Back in March of this year, we all became obsessed with a guy who showed people his morning routine. It included being suspended above a pool in the longest dive known to man, a lot of Saratoga water, and more outrageous things to “start” the day. His name is Ashton Hall. Since, his routine videos have become a meme all their own and now the film The Running Man is using Hall’s reach to their advantage.

https://www.themarysue.com/glen-powell-teamed-up-with-that-saratoga-man-to-promote-the-running-man/

https://www.themarysue.com/?p=888904

the_mary_sue_feed

Posted by Rachel Leishman

https://www.themarysue.com/jonathan-bailey-playing-clarinet-is-just-as-cute-as-it-sounds/

https://www.themarysue.com/?p=888875

Jurassic World Rebirth is hitting theaters soon and that means we’re in the thick of the promotional tour for the movie. And one thing we’ve learned is that star Jonathan Bailey really loves playing the clarinet.

Bailey plays Dr. Henry Loomis in the upcoming film and while his character is a delightful nerd about dinosaurs, it has been revealed that Bailey has his own nerdy quality that fans can find adorable: His love for the clarinet! When the Bridgerton star found out that Alexandre Desplat was working on the score nearby him, he went to see Desplat in action. But it then led to Bailey getting to play for the film!

https://www.themarysue.com/jonathan-bailey-playing-clarinet-is-just-as-cute-as-it-sounds/

https://www.themarysue.com/?p=888875

the_mary_sue_feed

Posted by Sabine Joseph

https://www.themarysue.com/home-depot-husky-tool-chest-changing-table/

https://www.themarysue.com/?p=888879

Woman shares how she uses Husky Tool Chest(l) White Husky Tool Chest(r)

A couple’s unconventional use of a Husky Tool Chest has the internet declaring that the husband “played the long game.”

In a 31-second TikTok, Ellie (@livwellwithel) writes in an on-screen caption, “POV: Your husband convinces you to get a toolbox instead of a changing table and now it’s your favorite part of the nursery.”

https://www.themarysue.com/home-depot-husky-tool-chest-changing-table/

https://www.themarysue.com/?p=888879

the_mary_sue_feed

Posted by Claire Goforth

https://www.themarysue.com/walmart-receipt-checks/

https://www.themarysue.com/?p=888872

Crumpled receipt paper (l) Walmart storefront sign (r)

You’ve finished shopping, paid, and headed for the exit. A Walmart employee by the door asks to see your receipt. What do you do?

Most of us probably just hand over the receipt and wait for the employee to check it against the items we’re exiting with. This is in part based on politeness and adherence to social norms, and in part on fear of being accused of shoplifting or making a scene.

https://www.themarysue.com/walmart-receipt-checks/

https://www.themarysue.com/?p=888872

lb_lee

Hey everybody, it's that time again: time to vote for which stuff gets the LiberaPay/Patreon money this month!

As always, anyone can vote (please do!), but LiberaPay and Patreon patrons get double weight for their votes. (Due to Patreon's porn purges, I really encourage you to use LiberaPay, if you get a choice.) If you want to see the blurbs for any of these works, those are here! (You can also leave your requests there; requesting a story or essay is always free!) If you don't have a DW and so can't do the poll, that's okay; just leave your vote in the comments below; anon comments are turned on.

Which works gets the money, and thus posted this month? YOU CHOOSE, readers!

Poll #33310 2025 July Fan Poll

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 14

View Respondents

Did you toss LiberaPay/Patreon money my way last month?

View Answers

Yes (my votes count double)
5 (100.0%)

What writing gets posted this month?

View Answers

Infinity Smashed: Born Lucky
4 (30.8%)

Reverend Alpert: the Traveling Exorcist
2 (15.4%)

Henchwench for Hire (F/F supervillainy)
4 (30.8%)

Rutless (trans omegaverse porno)
1 (7.7%)

Flights of Reality (the Cursed City)
0 (0.0%)

Anatomy of a Dance
1 (7.7%)

The Boy Whose Heart Is Home
2 (15.4%)

The Battleaxe and the Blood-Eater
1 (7.7%)

The Hands of a Dozen Strangers (touch essay)
8 (61.5%)

What art/comic/zine gets posted this month?

View Answers

Cult Comix
3 (23.1%)

Death Watch
4 (30.8%)

How it Was, How It Is
1 (7.7%)

2012 hospital sketchbook
1 (7.7%)

2013 Homeless Year sketchbook
1 (7.7%)

2014 AllFam sketchbook
0 (0.0%)

Blushing and Scent (Mori/Rawlin fluff)
7 (53.8%)

Red Tape Hell (disability farce)
6 (46.2%)

lirazel

I am once again asking for audiobook recs! I'm looking for nonfiction, read by the author, preferably not too dense. Audiobooks are not my normal medium, so I'm picky. As for what kind of nonfiction, I like history, cultural criticism, psychology, etc.

Audiobooks I've actually enjoyed listening to:

The Anthropocene Reviewed and Everything Is Tuberculosis by John Green
Girl On Girl: How Pop Culture Turned a Generation of Women Against Themselves by Sophie Gilbert
How to Be Perfect: The Correct Answer to Every Moral Question by Michael Schur
Unruly by David Mitchell
Roctogenarians: Late in Life Debuts, Comebacks, and Triumphs by Mo Rocca

I think all of these people except Gilbert have experience on TV/podcasts, which probably contributes to them being good at reading their own stuff.

the_mary_sue_feed

Posted by Rachel Leishman

https://www.themarysue.com/running-man-trailer-glen-powell-edgar-wright/

https://www.themarysue.com/?p=888860

Arnold Schwarzenegger’s take on Ben Richards in the 1987 film The Running Man took the idea of what Stephen King’s novel was about and did absolutely nothing with it. Now, Edgar Wright’s take starring Glen Powell promises to be a more faithful adaptation.

Powell is joined by Colman Domingo, Josh Brolin, Lee Pace, Jayme Lawson, and more to tell the story of Ben Richards, a man who is trying to get money for his daughter, Cathy, to get medicine. He does so by joining the show “The Running Man”, where he has to run for his life while hunters chase after him. The longer he stays alive, the more money he makes. It takes him all over the United States but is also a terrifying run filled with explosions, twists, and a lot of Ben Richards’ idea of a “joke.”

https://www.themarysue.com/running-man-trailer-glen-powell-edgar-wright/

https://www.themarysue.com/?p=888860

lirazel

Y'all! I finally finished my Sinners fic! Now I can write my other Sinners fic!

Thank you to

dollsome for looking it over for me!

Title: please don't bury my soul (4646 words) by Lirazel
Fandom: Sinners (2025)
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Relationships: Lisa Chow & Sammie Moore, Bo Chow & Lisa Chow, Grace Chow & Lisa Chow
Characters: Lisa Chow, Sammie Moore
Additional Tags: Post-Canon, the blues as emotional articulation, warnings for references to period- and canon-typical racial violence against black people, Grief/Mourning, started having a lot of 'who's going to tell lisa what happened to her parents???' feelings
Summary:

On a street in Oakland in 1956, Lisa Chow hears the sound of the Delta.